This mandatory inspection of all rental units in the City has swept through Natomas and Del Paso Heights recently. From most reports all went well. Homepointe will act as the local contact representative for our clients by coordinating authorizations with the tenants, meeting the city inspector at the rental, making necessary repairs, billing the responsible party (if tenant caused the damage) and getting the property signed off. Where they give the ordinary landlord a 4 hour window to meet the inspector at the home they often work with our management company by giving us a 1 hour window--this saves us and the clients time and money.
James Safonov
If there is one thing I learned early on in renting and managing property is that consistency proves successful. We as managers need to be as dynamic as the people we encounter and properties we manage. What separates some of us in this industry is the intestinal fortitude to stay the course and be consistent. Consistent in our marketing and consistent in our management practices. We need to be especially consistent in our strategies and interactions with our landlord clients. They hire us to rent and manage their property by keeping their best interests in mind. Keeping their best interests means doing our job and not allowing anyone else--including the owner client--to move us off the right course in doing so.
I recently had an unfortunate experience with a returning client. 4+ years ago this client moved out of their primary residence and hired me to rent out their property. After 3 years of management they thanked me for finding such a wonderful tenant but now wanted to save money and manage the property them self. After more than 4 years of tenancy with only one resident the client calls to sign up again--the good tenant had purchased a home and moved. We met at the rental and went over the contract. We spoke about the same marketing strategies I intended to employ to find another qualified tenant. They agreed and the marketing began. Within a 2 week period I received several forwarded emails from the client from an ad they had previously placed for $100.00 less than my ad. These inquiries wanted me to show the home to them at odd hours and on very short notice. I responded to each of them with our company information and the prescheduled dates and times I was to be at the home--most were pleased with the responses and attended the showings. Others informed the owner I was unwilling to meet their needs. Inexplicably, the owner lost faith in my ability and gave me a five day deadline to rent the home or cancel the contract. I opted to immediately cancel the contract as I know my strategy to rent property works. I do not fully understand why they changed course so drastically but I do know the problem was not mine or my company's. In looking at the notes from the first time I rented their home--it took 27 days to rent their home. This time they gave me an ultimatum after 14 days. I never want to lose an account but this one I believe I am better off without.
Homepointe uses 12 or more websites, an insert in the Sacramento Bee, 24 hour voicemail + email and daily updated hand outs at all 3 offices to market our properties. We establish prescheduled open house showings 2-3 times per week for all our vacants. We certainly do make appointments as well when time permits--usually with 1-2 days notice. I manage to rent an average of 10 properties per month and company wide we average 50-65 per month.
James Safonov
Big winter storms like the one on our horizon is a good reminder to winterize your vacant rentals. Have roof gutters cleared, windows secured and water mains turned off to avoid unnecessary problems. Once the storms blow over it is always a good idea to walk the vacant properties to inspect for damage and of course chase off any squatters using the property as a safe haven. These are simple but important steps to protect your client's investment.
James Safonov
As we enter the cooler months the trend of lowering rents has already begun. Especially in this market I am seeing rents for all communities drop significantly over the last 30-45 days. Quality tenants are out there though they are harder to attract as rental inventories are up. Investors are placing foreclosed homes on the market which is continuing to challenge our traditional landlords. Good tenants are staying put instead of risking a move in a volatile economy--they seem concerned about their jobs and or their job incomes being reduced. Less people looking to rent in a large inventory market raises the importance of proper pricing and chasing every lead. The property will rent but the margin for error is slimming.
James Safonov
One of the most critical aspects of renting a property is getting the prospective tenant out to see it. Though sight unseen renting may have to work with out of state transferees....those who live in the area really need to view the property they want to rent prior to placing a non refundable deposit. Homepointe schedules several brief showings of each vacant property each week. Prospective tenants know they can see the property they like by looking up the showing date and time either on the internet: www.homepointe.com, the 24 hour voicemail at #916-429-1302 and/or going to any of our 3 offices located at either 5896 South Land Park Dr Sac, CA 95822, 8856 Greenback Lane Orangevale, CA 95662 or my Roseville office at 1220 Melody Lane #110 Roseville, CA 95678.
There was a recent anonymous negative posting about one of our agents missing a sheduled ahowing. As a Homepointe agent I take great pride in my job and made the following response:
I am a long time agent with Homepointe, I completely understand your frustration. Though I am not a part of the situation you endured I can speak from experience as to why some appointments are not made. We absolutely do the best we can to make every appointment and do so on time. Unfortunately things can happen: they may have been in or behind an accident or had car trouble. The agent may have found some sort of problem at a home they showed prior to the missed appointment--a break in/vandalism, fallen tree or current squatter they had to deal with. We know it costs you time and money to view our homes--it also costs our owner clients money every day their homes stay vacant--we do our best to keep as many lines of communication open with our prospective tenants. From a personal stand point I always make a call to our receptionist to notify them I will be late or unable to make a showing appointment. I also ask the receptionist to apologize and request the callers contact information so I can reschedule at their convenience. Please understand we appreciate you and your business--its a crazy world out there and we are doing our best to help you find a home within it.
James Safonov
Homepointe Property Management
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Property Management Rentals and Maintenance in Sacramento, Yolo, Placer, and El Dorado Counties from offices located in Sacramento, Roseville, and Orangevale, CA We manage residential and commercial.
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